The Greater Fall River Art Association is celebrating Asian art and culture

Wednesday

Apr 2, 2014 at 9:00 PM

The Asian Arts Festival will feature origami, a Japanese tea ceremony and an art exhibit.

The Greater Fall River Art Association is celebrating Asian art and culture with the association’s inaugural Asian Arts Festival. The festivities start on Saturday, April 12, from noon to 4 p.m. with the opening of an exhibit celebrating Asian art, and an expert in Japanese Tea ceremony sharing his expertise. The following Saturday, April 19, origami artist Benjamin John Coleman will be teaching an origami flower-making workshop from 2 to 5 p.m.

The Asian Arts Festival is the brainchild of art association board of directors member Bryson Dean-Gauthier, who worked on it with art association board of directors member Sharon Owens, known for her high-quality baskets.

Dean-Gauthier, a graphic artist and graphic arts teacher at various colleges, said she came up with the idea for the festival after joining the art association last fall. “They were looking for ideas for exhibits in the spring and I thought about Oriental festivals with spring cherry blossoms that are held in April,” she said. “Though the cherry blossoms probably won’t be in bloom then, I’m hoping the weather will cooperate.”

A resident of Somerset, Dean-Gauthier said she’s hoping area artists from all backgrounds will submit Asian art-inspired pieces — Chinese, Japanese, Thai and others, for the exhibit. Dean-Gauthier, who created a stylized Japanese crane on a panel for the exhibit, said she’s hoping younger artists who work in the Japanese anime and manga animated comics style will also consider submitting pieces to the show.

Fall River native Glenn A. Sorei Pereira, an instructor of chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony, will be returning to the city to give three 45-minute demonstrations at the art association on April 12. Pereira, who lives in Boston, said growing up in Fall River, and later Swansea, he had an extremely general interest in Asian culture.

“My only connection to Asian culture was the chow mein sandwich,” he said joking — that, and the famous stage shows at the former China Royal restaurant.

His interest in Asian art all changed when a friend gave him a gift of 10 lessons in the art of the Japanese tea ceremony. At first, he said, he put off the lessons, and then a few months later, he took the first one. To say it transformed his life would be understating it.

“I was so intrigued with the philosophy of the tea and the aesthetics — it was originally an art form created for men — that I ended up taking all 10 lessons within two weeks and within 11 months I sublet my apartment and went to Japan to study it in Kyoto,” said Pereira.

The one-year intensive study in Japanese tea ceremony for foreign students at the Urasenke Professional College of Chado was only the start of a near 33-year study in the Japanese artform. “Since then, I’ve been back about 30 times to continue my studies — that’s how involved tea is,” said Pereira.

The Japanese tea ceremony is one of many of artistic disciplines in Japan that also includes flower arrangement, calligraphy and martial arts, he said. In addition to studying the art form in Japan, Pereira also teaches foreign students at the college where he studied as well as in Boston, where he shares his expertise with students, male and female, ranging from age 15 to seniors.

A full Japanese tea ceremony involves three to five guests and it takes four to five hours with two different styles of tea, floral arranging, a 12-course meal and sake, said Pereira.

The three tea ceremonies he will doing at the art association consecutively on April 12 will be about 45 minutes each and will include arranging flowers and making the thin green tea. Made with the traditional matcha green tea powder, the thin tea is heated over charcoal and whisked. Attendees of the ceremony will have the chance to taste the tea and enjoy a sweet treat, said Pereira. Admission to one of the tea ceremonies, held at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. is free.

The Asian Arts Festival will also include origami flower expert Benjamin John Coleman offering a workshop in making origami flowers on Saturday, April 19, from 2-5 p.m. The $15 cost per person includes materials. Coleman, a former math teacher and computer entrepreneur, is the author of the books “Origami Bonsai,” and “Origami 101,” which he said takes a new approach to teaching origami to make it easier to learn for the novice origami enthusiast.

The Asian art exhibit will be on display at the art association, at 80 Belmont St., through May 2. Artists who are interested in submitting work should drop it off at the art association on April 5 and 6 from 1 to 4 p.m.